SUKKUR, Jan 8: The Balochistan government will demand compensation for extra water releases from its share to Sindh under the 1991 water accord. This was said by Balochistan irrigation secretary Munawwar Khan Mandokhel while talking to journalists here on Thursday after visiting the Khirthar Canal and the Sukkur Barrage.

The visit was aimed at having a firsthand view of water distribution arrangements from the Khirthar Canal to parts of Balochistan. Mr Mandokhel said the 1991 accord had fixed the share of Balochistan at 3.82 million acre feet water but the province did not have a matching cultivation area. As a result, Sindh was receiving the extra 0.82 MAF water since 1991.

He disclosed that the irrigation department had prepared a summary according to which Balochistan had a legal right to get compensation for its water being used by Sindh.

He said the matter would be raised first at the federal cabinet and then at the Council of Common Interests. Mr Mandokhel said work on the 500-kilometre-long Kutchi canal, being taken from the Taunsa Barrage, was in progress. He said the project, which would bring 700,000 acres of barren land of Balochistan under cultivation, would be completed by 2008.

He said his department had completed a study to make maximum land cultivatable. The irrigation secretary said 41 sites had been identified where reservoirs and spurs could be built for storing flood and rain water during monsoons.

He observed that the projects would help raise six MAF water and to meet Balochistan's agriculture needs. He said a 56-kilometre-long pipeline was also being laid for supplying potable water from the Pat Feeder Canal to adjoining districts of Kutchi, Naseerabad and Kharan, facing drought-like conditions for the past several years.

Mr Mandokhel said a meeting of the parliamentary committee on water would be held in Quetta on Jan 13, which would be presided over by its chairman, Senator Nisar Ahmed Memon.

The committee would also hold meetings in Karachi and Lahore and prepare its report before June 30. The committee, appointed by President Gen Pervez Musharraf for conducting a study on water resources, giving recommendations and suggesting solutions to problems with regard to construction of water reservoirs, had earlier met the NWFP chief minister and irrigation officials of the province.

FREE EYE CAME: The Sukkur district Nazim inaugurated a three-day free eye camp organized by the prevention and control of blindness cell of the Civil Hospital, Karachi, at the Anwer Piracha Hospital. The cell coordinator Prof Ziauddin Ahmed Shaikh briefed the Nazim during his visit. EDO Health Mohammad Ashfaq Piracha was also present on the occasion.